everyone in that nation has their own free will
"Clear thinking is very much needed when we come to deal with the Free Agency of man. Some have imagined it a very difficult subject because they have made out of it something other than what it is. For the same reason some have charged that the doctrine of unconditional election, a Bible and Baptist doctrine, destroys the Free Agency of man, with regard to man having a Nature in his soul which would have to be Spiritually Capable of Birthing itself from the Nature of Spiritual Inability, which leaves all men Spiritually Dead, unless God Initiates The Act of Salvation.
"Well does Spurgeon say: "In reference to the matter of Predestination and Free Will,
I have often heard men ask, 'How do you make them agree?'
"I think there is another question just as difficult to solve. 'How do you make them differ?'
"The two may be as easily made to concur as to clash.
It seems to me a problem which cannot be stated, and a subject that needs no solution!" (Sermons, Vol. 13, p. 31).
It appears that the nation where a person is born, and the nation where the person grows up, has more of an influence on their moral behavior then their freedom of choice.
THE FREE AGENCY OF MAN leaves man where it found them = in sin;
"Man cannot do otherwise than continue in sin so long as he is in his Natural State
(Jer. 17:9; Prov. 4:23; Job 14-4; Jer. 13:23; John 6:65; Rom. 8:7,8; 1 Cor. 2:14).
"But his continuance in sin is not due to outside compulsion or restraint,
but to his own character which causes him to choose darkness rather than light (John 3:19).
"He continues in sin for the same reason that a hog wallows in the mire.
"He continues in sin for the same reason that God continues in Holiness.
"Thus man is fully a Free Agent, unable put themselves in a position TO FLY TO THE MOON, BUT THEY ARE ENTIRELY FREE TO DO SO.
Why, then, does God hold them so accountable?
WHY MAN IS RESPONSIBLE? The question is, then, how can man be responsible for his actions when all that he does has been Ordained and Decreed of God? This is not a new question. It is at least as old as the New Testament, and probably much older. Paul anticipated this question from his readers when he penned the wonderful ninth chapter of Romans.
"He said.
"Thou will say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will."
"And Paul's reply was:
"Nay, but, 0 man, who art thou that repliest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
"Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor."
"Paul's mentioning of this question and his reply show conclusively that Paul taught the Absolute Sovereignty of God. Indeed his preceding words clearly teach it. Paul made the reply that he did because he anticipated the question as coming from an objector.
"When it comes as a Reverent Inquiry, it deserves more detailed consideration. Paul's reply had to be brief because his time and purpose would not permit a lengthy discussion. Our time permits and our purpose demands a fuller discussion. Man is responsible for his actions, notwithstanding the fact that God has Decreed All that Comes to Pass, for at least Three Reasons:
1. God's Decree Concerning Sin is Not Causative but Permissive, Directive, Preventive, and Determinative.
"God decreed that sin should come in the world, for reasons that are fully known only to Him, but He decreed that it should come by man's own free choice. God does not compel man to sin, but He allows it. Man, and not God, is the efficient cause of sin; and for that reason man is responsible. Before passing it needs to be remarked that no objections can be brought against the statement that God decreed that sin should come into the world that cannot be brought against God's Actual Permission of sin, unless the objector takes the position that God was Powerless to Rrevent the entrance of sin.
"This would be a denial of God's Omnipotence and Sovereignty, and would render the objector unworthy of consideration here. God's Omnipotence and Sovereignty teaches us that whatever God Permits He Permits because He Wills to do so.
"And since God is Immutable, His Will has ever been the same. What He Wills at any time He has Willed from All Eternity.
Therefore,
God's Will Equals His Purpose and His Purpose Equals God's Eternal Decree.
2. The Law of God and Not His Decree Fixes Man's Duty and Responsibility.
"The law of God is man's guide and standard. This is God's Revealed Will. God's Decree is His Secret Will.
"Man has nothing to do with this except to know and acknowledge the facts concerning it.
"The Secret things belong unto Jehovah, our God; but things that are Revealed belong unto us and to our children Forever,
that we may do all the Words of this Law" (Deut. 29:29).
3. The Motive Back of Man's Sinning Makes Him Responsible.
"Why does man sin? Is it ever because he wants to do the Will of God? Nay, never so.
"Why did men crucify Christ? Was it because they believed that God had Sent Him to die as a Sin-Bearer? No.
It was because they hated Him. They crucified Him through wicked motives. It is thus that man always sins.
"Sin proceeds from man's love of Darkness (John 3:19).
FREE AGENCY AND CONVERSION Man is unable to turn from sin until he is Quickened by the Spirit of God.
For proof of this see the passages given above, in proof of the fact that man cannot do otherwise than continue in sin so long as he is in his Natural State. The New Nature, therefore, must be Implanted logically... prior to the exercise of Repentance and Faith.*
"This is the meaning of the New Hampshire Declaration of Faith when it says that Repentance and Faith are "Inseparable Graces wrought in our souls by the Regenerating Spirit of God." This is also the teaching of Eph. 1:19,20. But when a man turns to God in Repentance and Faith he acts voluntarily and he is thus a Free Agent. Once Enabled by The Holy Spirit TO RELATE TO GOD WHO IS SPIRIT, when the sinner
is Made a Partaker of The Divine Nature, THEN THE BORN AGAIN SOUL WILL TURN FROM THEIR SIN, WILLFULLY, AND BELIEVE IN JESUS.
"The sinner is not compelled to turn by a Power outside of his own Nature.
"Because, when Implanting the New Nature, the Holy Spirit Operates
"in the region of the soul below consciousness" (Strong).
"Then that New Nature, when Implanted, becomes as much a part of the man as his Old Nature was;
"and NEW ETERNAL DIVINE NATURE Moves their New will in strict conformity to the Nature, Laws,
and normal action of the same very own will they have always possessed, however, which has now been Born Again
and been Accompanied by The Holy Spirit, in the Saved soul's New will that is now of a Divine Nature.
Thus man is a Free Agent in Conversion.
THE FREE AGENCY OF MAN continues to work in him
"both to will and to work for His Good Pleasure" (Phil. 2:13).
"But this work, like the work of Quickening, does not coerce the person's will, which is now Born Again,
it is their New Divine, Born Again NATURE THAT THEY NOW POSSESS A SPIRITUAL WILL THAT MAKES UNDERSTANDING GOD POSSIBLE
GIVES THEM THE UNCTION FROM ON HIGH TO REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL.
from
https://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF Books II/Simmons - A Systematic Study of Bible Doctrine.pdf
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